PM Lifts Ban on Death Penalty in Terrorism Cases

PESHAWAR – A day after terrorists killed 141 people in an attack on a school in Peshawar, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved abolishment of moratorium on the execution of death penalty in terrorism-related cases.

The assault on the army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, the deadliest terror attack in Pakistan s history, has triggered widespread revulsion. Political and military leaders have vowed to wipe out all the terrorists, who have killed thousands of ordinary Pakistanis in recent years.

“The prime minister has approved abolishment of moratorium on the execution of death penalty in terrorism-related cases,” an official from Sharif s office said. Earlier on Tuesday, Army Chief General Raheel Sharif had advised the Prime Minister to hang all the convicted terrorists, sources told.

Hanging remains on the Pakistani statute book and judges continue to pass the death sentence, but a de facto moratorium on civilian executions has been in place since 2008. Only one person has been executed since then, a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in November 2012.

Rights campaign group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted the appeals process. – dunyanews